Australian Scholars, Beset With Plagiarism, Inaugurate New Journal on Academic Integrity

In an effort to create a forum for discussion of a recurrent problem among their country's foreign students, two Australian scholars have started a journal devoted largely to the issue of plagiarism.

The International Journal for Educational Integrity, a freely accessible online publication that made its debut last week, will cover matters of academic rectitude, including soft marking, fraud, and other forms of academic dishonesty, as well as plagiarism.

Billed as the first of its kind, the periodical is to be published twice a year. Most of the articles in the new issue examine the theme of plagiarism in Australia, particularly in relation to the country's historically high number of international students among whom English is not a first language.

The publication was unveiled at a conference on the same subject that was held at the country's University of Newcastle, which itself was recently found by a government investigation to have covered up a rash of plagiarism for fear of losing a lucrative overseas program (The Chronicle, October 14).